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Inmate was impregnated in prison

2015-06-19  Staff Report 2

Inmate was impregnated in prison
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Windhoek

While testifying in mitigation of her sentence convicted sex trader Johanna Lukas admitted to Judge President Petrus Damaseb she was impregnated by a fellow inmate while awaiting trial in Swakopmund.

She however declined to name the father of her youngest child, only telling Damaseb that it was a fellow inmate.

New Era extensively reported on the matter when it was brought to our attention that Lukas fell pregnant in jail.

She also told the court she first got pregnant at the age of 18 while she was busy upgrading her Grade 10 marks through Namcol.

Her first child was born on September 09, 2010 and lives with his grandmother in the north while her second son was born on November 11, 2011 and is being raised by her mother in Swakopmund.

He third child, the one born in custody, saw the light of day on August 20 last year and is also staying with her mother.

The mother Eugenia testified she is the only one providing for her family including a disabled husband and her other children.

The woman broke down during her testimony and begged the court to give Lukas a suspended sentence or any other sentence excluding prison.

“She was the only one who helped me and contributed when she was working,” the distraught woman wailed in court.

During her testimony, Lukas said that after she dropped out of school she went to work at Woermann Brock Supermarket as a cashier earning N$1 800 per month.

The sister of Lukas also testified on her behalf.

Angelina Lukas told the court that when Lukas was still at home she supported her with toiletries and so on.

While she did pass Grade 12, she (the witness) could not go and look for work as she had to look after the children of Lukas and her own.

On a question from State Advocate Innocencia Nyoni whether there is no one else to care for the children, the witness said that her elder sister who stays with them is a “drunkard”.

She became one because of the case of Lukas, the witness told the court.

She said she wants to study further, but is unable to because of the continued incarceration of her sister.

She also asked the court to be lenient to her sister.

Lukas as well asked the court for leniency.

She remained steadfast in her claim that she only took the one child to the house of Martin Pretorius, who is the man that had intercourse with the minor children, once.

“I only took the complainant to Martin’s house once and God in heaven knows it,” Lukas said at the end of her testimony.

She further told the court she felt guilty for taking the complainant to the house of Martin “even if it was not with bad intentions” and asked for the girl’s forgiveness as well as that of the mother of the child.

She also asked the court’s forgiveness and further asked that the sentences on the rape charges run concurrently and begged for a second chance so that she can look after her children.

She told the court that none of the fathers of her children (different ones) are contributing to the maintenance of the children.

Lukas still denies that she took the second child to the house of Pretorius for his sexual deviancy as Judge President Damaseb described it in his judgment.

Lukas was convicted on four counts of trafficking in persons and four counts of rape under coercive circumstances in respect of one complainant and another count of trafficking in persons, and rape without coercive circumstances in respect of a second complainant.

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2015-06-19  Staff Report 2

Tags: Khomas
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